1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cyclone dust-separating apparatus employed in a vacuum cleaner, for centrifugally separating dust from drawn-in air.
2. Description of the Related Art
An early model cyclone dust-separating apparatus, which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,003,196, performs separating and collecting operations at the same place. In this case, collected dust may be scatted or flow back to a discharge pipe by a cyclone air current, which causes deterioration of separation efficiency. Scattered dust clogs a filter such as a discharge filter, and this becomes more problematic when a vacuum cleaner is overturned and thus dust collected therein spills.
In order to solve the above problems, a cyclone dust-separating apparatus was suggested in Korean Patent Publication No. 2002-0009768 filed by the same assignee. The cyclone dust-separating apparatus includes a cylindrical cyclone body, a dirt-collecting receptacle enclosing an outer circumference of the cyclone body and having a partition for restricting dust movement, and a cover for covering an upper portion of the cyclone body and having an air inflow port and an air discharge port, and it is compact-sized to be applied in a canister type cleaner.
However, when the canister type cleaner employing the cyclone dust-separating apparatus as constructed above is suddenly overturned during cleaning operation, dust remaining in the cyclone body spills out to the cover having the air discharge port and thus escapes from the cyclone dust-separating apparatus through the air discharge port.
Also, since the cover has the air inflow port and the air discharge port formed therein, its structure is complicated.